• Despite uptick in household income, child poverty rate remains at 29.7 percent
• Nearly 1/4 of Spaniards at risk of poverty, earn less than 8,200 euros per year

Non-governmental organizations advocating on behalf of children and families in Spain have cautioned that an improvement in overall poverty statistics released Tuesday mask the reality of increased risk of child poverty in single-parent families and among the working poor.

According to one of the organizations, Save the Children, the poverty rate for children under age 18 remains at 29.7 percent, more than 7 percentage points higher than for the rest of the population, with half of that impoverished under-18 population living in conditions of extreme poverty.

The annual release Tuesday by Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística (National Statistics Institute, or INE) of fgures from its annual Living Conditions Survey showed an improvement in net income for individuals of 2.8 percent and for households of 2.4 percent. But the report also showed that one in five Spaniards, or 22.3 percent of the population, are at risk of poverty and social exclusion and are living on a household income of less than 8,200 euros per year.